About Joining Hearts
When Joining Hearts held its first main event in 1987, there was little known about HIV/AIDS. The world began to recognize its grave importance, and so our founders stepped up to start helping people living with HIV/AIDS in Atlanta. And now, 36 years later, the metro Atlanta community is once again in an HIV/AIDS crisis. While other cities in the country are seeing virtually no new HIV infections, Atlanta is seeing new infections at numbers we haven’t seen since the 1980’s.
Everyday there are a wide range of organizations working to stop the spread of HIV throughout Atlanta. We can’t support them without your continued support. It is just as important today as it was 36 years ago to support this cause; to support the local organizations and people that are fighting to stop the spread of the HIV virus and helping people who are living with the disease.
Since 1987, Joining Hearts has donated more than $2.7 million to our beneficiaries.
Our Mission
The mission of Joining Hearts is to raise awareness and funds to support prevention, care, and housing assistance to those impacted by HIV/AIDS in Atlanta.
History: Where it All Began
Joining Hearts was started in 1987 by a group of friends who wanted to do their part to help a friend impacted by HIV/AIDS who needed financial assistance to stay in his home. This group of friends decided to throw an event to raise funds to provide support for him to stay in his home.
The friends decided to make this an annual event with all the proceeds going to local organizations with a focus on helping people living with HIV/AIDS. This formed what is called now today as the Host Committee of Joining Hearts.
As needs and medical advances evolved, Joining Hearts had to do the same and expanded to add additional events to answer the call to action to make a bigger impact in Atlanta. In year 30, this led to a direct change in our focus by expanding our mission to support care and provision in addition to housing in which we were formed.
Board of Directors
Jerry Henderson
President
Jonathan Foulk
Vice President
Cory Jobe
Director of Finance
David Elsea
Director of Communications
Michael Boggan
Director of Patrons & Hosts
Anthony Baza-Fainn
Director of Events
Rosalyn Jordan
Director of Marketing
Brett Hill
Director of Volunteers
Kevin Moore
Director of Host Engagement & Member at Large
2023 Sponsors
Patrons
Heart of Diamond: $5,000+
- Gregg Chandler & Chandaland
Heart of Gold: $3,000+
- Robert Chubb & Steven Rodriguez
Four Heart Patron: $1,950+
- Scott Evers & Al Besse
- Raleigh Terry
Three Heart Patron: $950+
- Jeremy Palmer & Nicolas Scheuer
- James Venable
- Todd Waltman
- Michael Zenner & Ron Rodriguez
Two Heart Patron: $650+
- Danny Bergeron & Hugo Cruz
- Patrick Bodin & Brandon Hollis
- Jeff Brewer
- Lee Bryan & Joe Keller
- Eric Bymaster
- William Campbell & Jason Girod
- Craig Fisk
- Mark Fowler
- Newton Galloway & Gerard Lozano
- Evan Glover & Mark Butt
- Warren Gump
- Dan Heagney & Brandon Nicholas
- Thomas Hogshead
- David Holland & Demetri Daskalakis
- Scott Horton & Oriel Graham
- Christopher Krebs & Steve Messner
- Paul Lawrence & David Malo
- Michael Loffredo & Robert Jenkins
- William Porter & Carter Norris
- Andrew Ridge & John Hackett
- Roger & Bill Rutkowski
- John Stanton & Andrew Zwig
- Josh Vasil & Allen Wilson
- Kevin Workman & Don Hemrick
One Heart Patrons: $350+
- Thomas Barnette
- John Berger
- Jeremy Bolio
- Helmut Domagalski
- Robert Gaul
- Erick Johnson
- Bru Krebs
- Mark Lenkiewicz
- Sergio Orlando
- James Phelps
- Reed Pitre, MD
- Chris Privette
- Jon Santos
- Clayton Sharp
- Brad Smith
- Tim Ratliff
Honorary Patrons
Honorary Patrons are people who have gone above and beyond for Joining Hearts over the years. They have donated time, money and/or guidance to help Joining Hearts become what it is today. We can’t do what we do without them:
- John Baird
- Erin Bakermans
- Drew Barton
- Wes Berry
- Walt Bilinski
- Tommy Brendiar
- Jeff Brewer
- Tim Burns
- Bart Clennon
- Alan Collins
- Rhonda Creekmore
- Tina Cunningham
- Travis Denison
- Ed Doolittle
- Mike Ertle
- Ken Exum
- Charlie Frew
- Joe Greene
- Ben Hadsock
- Chip Hamner
- Keith Hand
- Kevin Jerome
- Kevin Kelly
- Jeremiah Lawson
- Dan Lax
- Billy Ledford
- Mark Lenkiewicz
- Kerry Loftis
- Steve MacNeil
- Patrick McCulley
- Mandy Murray
- Mike Pope
- Philip Rafshoon
- Dan Rauzi
- Barbara Roberts
- Jon Santos
- Doug Sleezer
- Brian Stanton
- Mack Turner
- Michael Vorndran
- Greg Whitmire
Host Committee
- Anthony Baza-Fainn*
- Michael Boggan*
- David Elsea*
- Jonathan Foulk*
- Clay Hartzog
- Jerry Henderson*
- Brett Hill
- Cory Jobe*
- Rosalyn Jordan*
- Alex Kelly
- Kevin Moore
- Ryan Risher
- Georgios Spiliopoulos
- Catrina Thomas
* Currently serving on the Joining Hearts Board
Partners
These are organizations that work with us to achieve our mission by helping to promote our events.
